USAID SUPPORTS PROTAGONISTS OF CHANGES IN CROATIA

ZAGREB, March 9 (Hina) - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Croatia wants to support protagonists of changes, people who will really change Croatia and turn it into a democratic country with market economy, director of the USAID mission to Croatia Charles Aanenson said in Zagreb on Thursday. Aanenson presented the awards for achievement to 87 Croatia participants in short education programmes, TRANSIT, which took place in the United States and were sponsored by the USAID. The United States Government, including the USAID, has three goals in Croatia - peaceful reintegration and revival of areas which suffered damage in the war which is a way of supporting the Dayton Agreement, the transition in the democratic way of running a state and the development of market economy, Aanenson added. During the last five years of its activities in Croatia, one thing the USAID tried to accomplish by education was choosing protagonists of changes, people who will really change Croatia into a democratic state with market economy. The protagonists of changes that we found were often women, he stressed. Lot of women participated in our programmes, and later they have contributed to changes in areas which suffered damage in the war by their activities in non-government organisations, education and justice and local authorities, Aanenson said. Croatian Vice Prime Minister Zeljka Antunovic, who participated in such an USAID programme in the United State in 1995 herself, addressed all present. (hina) it mm